Books, like proverbs, receive their chief value from the stamp and esteem of the ages through which they have passed.
Interpretation
Books gain their significance from the history and respect they have earned over time.
This quote emphasizes the idea that the true worth of books, similar to proverbs, comes not just from their content but from the legacy and reverence they accumulate throughout history. It suggests that the value of literature is deeply intertwined with the cultural context and the appreciation it receives over generations.
In practice
During a book club meeting, discussing the lasting impact of classic literature.
Today's dissenters mainly focus their attention and expend their energies on the most inconsequential of trivia. ...Allegedly serious intellectuals quibble endlessly over such ridiculous trivialities...In the meantime, the public is lulled into a perilous somnolence, spoon-fed pap, and palpable untruths, many of which are turned out by special-interest and pressure groups and well organized propaganda machines.
You must not only learn to live with tension, you must seek it out. You must learn to thrive on stress.
In times of rapid change, experience could be your worst enemy.
The #1 guideline to success is you must be in business for yourself. When you work for someone else, you sell your time at wholesale to your employer, who then re-sells it at retail to the customer.
Patience; this is the greatest business asset. Wait for the right time to make your moves.
There is only one way to make a great deal of money; and that is in a business of your own.
There is no substitute for knowledge.
It is the writer who might catch the imagination of young people, and plant a seed that will flower and come to fruition.
Literacy is so much entwined in our lives that we often fail to realize that the act of reading is a miracle that is evolving under our fingertips.
People often believe that character causes action, but when it comes to producing moral children, we need to remember that action also shapes character.
School prepares for the alienating institutionalization of life by teaching the need to be taught. Once this lesson is learned, people lose their incentive to grow in independence; they no longer find relatedness attractive, and close themselves off to the surprises which life offers when it is not predetermined by institutional definition.
Sadly, children's passion for thinking often ends when they encounter a world that seeks to educate them for conformity and obedience only.
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